Schumann Traumerei Quotes

Art was not created as a way to riches. Strive to become a true artist; all else will take care of itself. ~ Robert Schumann

Music induces nightingales to sing, pug dogs to yelp. ~ Robert Schumann

The aesthetic principle is the same in every art, only the material differs. ~ Robert Schumann

Composing gives me great pleasure ... there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound. ~ Clara Schumann

Know what you want to do - then do it. Make straight for your goal and go undefeated in spirit to the end. ~ Ernestine Schumann-Heink

Just as surely as every new language mastered opens up a new world, so knowledge of a Beethoven, a Chopin, or a Schumann opens up a new world in spiritual beauty and thought. ~ Ignacy Jan Paderewski

I will yield to popular demands only insofar as they do not betray my own convictions. ~ Clara Schumann

Perhaps only a Genius can truly understand Genius. ~ Robert Schumann

How often have I actually discovered in myself that enthusiasm raises the artist above himself, how in an ordinary mood one would not have been able to accomplish many of the things for which enthusiasm lends one everything, energy, fire. ~ Clara Schumann

"We liked it" or "I didn't like it" people say. As if it were nothing higher than to please the people! ~ Robert Schumann

It was an unforgettable picture to see Chopin sitting at the piano like a clairvoyant, lost in his dreams; to see how his vision communicated itself through his playing, and how, at the end of each piece, he had the sad habit of running one finger over the length of the plaintive keyboard, as though to tear himself forcibly away from his dream. ~ Robert Schumann

It is impossible to communicate with Schumann. The man is hopeless; he doesn't talk at all. ~ Richard Wagner

Too often, people who suffered trauma let themselves be defined by it, and she has been determined to avoid that fate. ~ Katrin Schumann

People compose for many reasons, to become immortal; because the piano happens to be open; because they want to become a millionaire; because of the praise of friends; because they have looked into a pair of beautiful eyes; or for no reason whatsoever. ~ Robert Schumann

You said how Michelangelo was a manic-depressive who portrayed himself as a flayed martyr in his painting. Henri Matisse gave up being a lawyer because of appendicitis. Robert Schumann only began composing after his right hand became paralyzed and ended his career as a concert pianist. (...) You talked about Nietzsche and his tertiary syphilis. Mozart and his uremia. Paul Klee and the scleroderma that shrank his joints and muscles to death. Frida Kahlo and the spina bifida that covered her legs with bleeding sores. Lord Byron and his clubfoot. The Bronte sisters and their tuberculosis. Mark Rothko and his suicide. Flannery O'Connor and her lupus. Inspiration needs disease, injury, madness.

"According to Thomas Mann," Peter said, "'Great artists are great invalids. ~ Chuck Palahniuk

It was no use to tell a person to forget. No matter how hard you tried to put it out of your mind, the hurt would still be there, festering under the forgetfulness, sending poison through your veins. ~ Mary Schumann

You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods. ~ Robert Schumann

There is nothing greater than the joy of composing something oneself and then listening to it. ~ Clara Schumann

It's rather splendid to think of all those great men and women who appear to have presented symptoms that allow us to describe them as bipolar. Whether it's Hemingway, Van Gogh ... Robert Schumann has been mentioned ... Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath ... some of them with rather grim ends. ~ Stephen Fry

If all would play first violin, we could not obtain an orchestra. Therefore esteem every musician in his place. ~ Robert Schumann

Once, somebody asked Robert Schumann to explain the meaning of a certain piece of music he had just played on the piano.
What Robert Schumann did was sit back down at the piano and play the piece of music again. ~ David Markson

Nothing right can be accomplished in art without enthusiasm. ~ Robert Schumann

He gives me the impression of being a spoilt child.

(on Liszt) ~ Clara Schumann

An evil fate has deprived me of the full use of my right hand, so that I am not able to play my compositions as I feel them. The trouble with my hand is that certain fingers have become so weak, probably through writing and playing too much at one time, that I can hardly use them. ~ Robert Schumann

Let your intimate friends be chosen from such as are better informed than yourself. ~ Robert Schumann

Nature best teaches how to pray, and how to reverence all the gifts the Almighty has given us. She is like a vast outspread handkerchief, embroidered with God's eternal name, on which we may dry alike our tears of sorrow and of joy; she turns weeping into ecstasy, and fills our hearts with speechless, quiet reverence and resignation. ~ Robert Schumann

It is the curse of talent that, although it labors with greater steadiness and perseverance than genius, it does not reach its goal, while genius already on the summit of the ideal, gazes laughingly about. ~ Robert Schumann

Music - so different from painting - is the art which we enjoy most in company with others. A symphony, presented in a room with one other listener, would please him but little. ~ Robert Schumann

By means of industry and perseverance you will rise higher and higher. ~ Robert Schumann

Thus it is ever in life. The aims we once pursued no longer satisfy us; we aim, we strive, we aspire, until sight fails, and mind and body find rest in the grave. ~ Robert Schumann

Can that which has cost the artist days, weeks, months and even years of reflection be understood in a flash by a dilettante? ~ Robert Schumann

You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled, listen to them. ~ Robert Schumann

The poet sees better than other mortals. I do not see things as they are, but according to my own subjective impression, and this makes life easier and simpler. ~ Robert Schumann

Confidence and courage are special skills to the art ... Within the four walls of his study, the artist should be modest, work diligently and conscientiously. While for the public, he'll show himself audacious, yes even into cheerful boldness. And so a new public's darling has arisen. ~ Robert Schumann

That first concept is alway the most naturally and best. The mind errs, the emotion never. ~ Robert Schumann

Music owes as much to Bach as religion to its founder. ~ Robert Schumann

Professor Schumann Antelme makes it clear that the Egyptians viewed the tomb as a remote-control switch that caused actions in heaven in response to the terrestrial activities with which they were associated. This concept can be summed up best by the alchemists' celebrated formula of "as above, so below," which in other words means that there is a precise correspondence between heaven and earth. This theory is also the rationale behind astrology and other esoteric doctrines. The alchemical tradition, and all religious tradition, had its origin in the sacred science of the ancient Egyptians. ~ Ruth Schumann Antelme

Monster a person though monster not human.
Monster like music. Like Beatles! Like Schumann!
World full of stupid. World full of noise.
Monster feel ANGRY. No birthday. No joys.
World full of JUNK monster not comprehend.
What is a childhood? What is a friend?
Monster and human both want the same.
Want conversation. Want love. WANT NO PAIN.
If monster speak heart: monster life only worsen.
Monster not human: BUT MONSTER A PERSON! ~ Jennifer Finney Boylan

The hearing of masterworks of different epochs will speediest of all cure you of vanity and self-adoration. ~ Schumann Robert

For me Wagner is impossible ... he talks without ever stopping. One can't just talk all the time. ~ Robert Schumann

I sometimes lack confidence in public, although I am proud enough inwardly. ~ Robert Schumann